[Firmwarrior]

I think requiring standardized tests of homeschooled kids is a pretty good compromise… The standardized tests are ridiculously easy to ace if you're smart, and they'd catch kids who aren't learning reading or basic arithmetic

[NateEag]

Pennsylvania does this in 3rd, 5th, and 8th grades.

Taking standardized tests in my youth was always a nice break - massively easier than the actual schoolwork I was doing.

[quantified]

Except that even what you're testing them on may not be really the most useful or applicable stuff. Any such testing would need to take into account what they actually have been doing and learning. Since the point of much learning is to be able to do, looking at accomplishment is super important. And a productive evaluation of people like the subject here might be challenging to system educators with a vested interest in our factory schooling.

[bobthepanda]

The normal requirements we expect in an industrialized society are the basics of reading and writing, and some math. Unschooling sure has its benefits, but the child will have to navigate an adult world where that is table stakes. We don’t want to consign students to a life of poverty because of a lack of literacy. https://archive.ph/1xaHW

[quantified]

Better have some science and civics too.

I think the challenge is less about the mechanics (reading, writing) and more about the content expressed via these, as there has to be some element of common content as well.

[bobthepanda]

At least in NYS, not only are the test criteria released, but there are actually previous years’ tests published for the purposes of practicing. https://www.nysedregents.org/elementary-intermediate.html

Their criteria is pretty basic “you need to be able to comprehend a 800-word news article”, and we are often failing to meet those standards with alternative education (which isn’t even just homeschooling, parochial systems have issues here too.)

At the end of the day, a service worker needs to be able to read the prices being wrung up on the cash register, and a factory worker should be able to read an instruction manual and safety rules. Not meeting those basic standards basically relegates you to a very small amount of jobs.

[asperous]

At least in Oregon this is already a thing

https://www.oregon.gov/ode/learning-options/HomeSchool/Pages...

[germinalphrase]

We don’t even universally require our schools to do standardized testing, so good luck getting traction.

[mensetmanusman]

They just got rid of some of these tests in CA public schools…

[dragonwriter]

AFAICT, the closest thing to this that actually happened was adopting a shorter version of certain tests starting this past Spring.

[crawfordcomeaux]

I've heard there's evidence that delaying literacy and numeracy has meaningful and potentially desirable effects on brain development. If a child and parents want to test that out, why not allow them to do so?

[watwut]

Yes if you mean starting to teach them read and write at 7 instead of at 5.

No if you mean cutting away majority of curriculum and teaching the rest by having kid doing sheets alone on kitchen table until isolated bored kid slows or gives up.

[crawfordcomeaux]

Yeah, the former.

[cauthon]

Children cannot provide informed consent, for one